The last time I came across Beethoven’s 9th
Symphony was in a remarkable recording by The Netherlands Symphony
Orchestra conducted by Jan Willem de Vriend on Challenge Classics (see
review).
I know Tilson Thomas/San Francisco Mahler
symphonies series wasn’t universally loved, but with their stunning
production values I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hear
what he and his band would make of Beethoven’s often strange and
always compelling late masterpiece.

MusicWeb International’s Masterworks
Index gives some idea of the wealth of recordings of
this work both historical and more recent. While I’ve collected
a fair few versions in my time I would find it tricky to pick out an
absolute favourite, and impossible to recommend some kind of definitive
1st choice. What I find myself looking for these days are
recordings which force a re-evaluation of the piece, something which
pushes the boundaries of our understanding of the work and which goes
beyond standard perceptions without creating some kind of strange un-Beethovenian
monster. Tilson Thomas by no means creates a monster, but he does have
an ear for the most radical aspects of this music, and in bringing these
out does force some new thinking about Beethoven’s 9th.

I remember reviewing parts of András Schiff’s excellent
cycle of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, and in some ways Tilson Thomas’s
focus on some passages which have a transitional quality result in some
of the most surprising moments. Take some of these out of context and
you might be forgiven for thinking you were hearing orchestral music
by someone like Ruud
Langgaard. Try the first movement at 8:49 to perhaps about two minutes
beyond. If you come across this in isolation then it can be disorientating
enough, but with Tilson Thomas’s dramatic emphasis and full-on
orchestral texture this has the kind of avant-garde thrill to which
most of us composers can only aspire. Comparing Tilson Thomas with another
great version, that with Claudio Abbado and the Berliner Philharmoniker
(see review),
and you have an entirely different vision. Abbado’s moment here
is a dramatic storm which passes swiftly, getting us to take cover but
with hardly any doubt that it will soon be over.

There is nothing particularly odd about Tilson Thomas’s interpretation
of this mighty score, and comparing with another feisty SACD version
from the BIS label, that with Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota
Orchestra (see review)
shows where he is in some ways less forward-looking. The timings for
all of the movements are broader than Vänskä by minutes in
all but the second Molto Vivace but, this given, Tilson Thomas
maintains a gripping sense of shape and direction, creating a greater
sense of restlessness in the apparent serenity of the Adagio molto
e cantabile third movement. Even with a brisker tempo, Vänskä’s
version of this movement is more of an even traversal, where Tilson
Thomas holds back more frequently and allows Beethoven’s changes
of tonality and thematic evolutions to take us more by surprise. Listen
to the way time stands still from 7:49, with vibrato-free winds punctuated
by almost invisible string pizzicati - and then the sun comes
out at 9:26, and we suddenly know where we are going and from whence
we emerged. I still like Vänskä here, but the effect is far
more pastoral, Beethoven’s more youthful walk in the countryside
rather than the troubling labyrinths in which he found himself later
in life.

The final movement deserves a chapter all of its own, but Tilson Thomas’s
consistent examination of Beethoven’s remarkable nuances brings
another remarkable performance. At 24:50 it’s a little longer
than some, but I don’t find it heavy or lumbering. Tilson Thomas
lingers at certain points, emphasising the ‘modern’ feel
of the music as he does elsewhere, somehow managing to do this without
seeming mannered or artificial. No doubt there are those who will disagree,
but vivre la difference, mon amis. The choral singing is very good,
soloists very strong throughout. Nathan Berg’s opening solo has
that wide vibrato we all love to hate, but at least he doesn’t
ham things up as Geert
Smits does for Jan Willem de Vriend. The general effect from Tilson
Thomas’s live performance is less edge-of-the-seat exciting when
compared to Abbado, but when the big tune arrives, Freude, schooner
Götterfunken the choir is thrillingly energetic, the men not
discomforted further on by Beethoven’s high notes in Seid umschlungen,
Millioenen. The sense of triumph at the conclusion is palpable,
though you will have to put up with a tumult of applause at the end.

With plenty of magical moments and a fine sense of shape this is a confident
and admirable Beethoven Symphony No. 9. The recording is excellent,
vividly vibrant and deep if perhaps not quite as spectacular as the
Mahler, though his orchestra is that much bigger. Tilson Thomas gives
us plenty to think about with his Beethoven, and I’ve enjoyed
this recording hugely. Is it my all-time favourite? No, I don’t
think it knocks Abbado out of consideration for that possible honour,
although I suspect it does edge Vänskä a notch down in this
particular work, even though I still hold his complete cycle in the
highest regard. If you are looking for an impressively performed and
refreshingly interpreted ‘choral’ symphony, and one in which
you can explore as if within Beethoven’s troubled but heroically
optimistic imagination, then this is a tremendous place to be.